Gone Into Dust
by Thus Spake The Pancake
Summary: Seto Kaiba has been kidnapped, and Mokuba breaks a promise to him by asking for help. But at least everyone has the same goals: find the CEO before it's too late, and take down the people responsible for everything. Co-written with Bryony Paige Fox.
1. Chapter 1

Gone Into Dust

_Give me a reason to believe that you're gone_

_I see your shadow, so I know they're all wrong._

-Evanescence, 'Even In Death'

* * *

><p>"…The blood found on the exterior of Kaiba Corporation is confirmed to be that of Chief Executive Officer Seto Kaiba, as is the blood discovered at several places around his home. While no body has been located, the amount of blood lost suggests that this is what authorities are searching for at this point…"<p>

Yugi and Joey watched the report on the television while they ate their pizza; however, Yugi had tossed his slice aside when they started talking about blood. It wasn't like his stomach was normally weak, but they were talking about Kaiba-someone he'd known for a very long time. Joey finished scarfing down his slice unfazed before looking over at his friend.

"Aw, Yug…" he started, then trailed off, unsure of what to say.

Yugi shook his head. "I know, I know…we haven't even seen him since Egypt…it's just hard to hear."

Joey turned the television over to the video game setting. "Is that better?"

The shorter friend forced a small smile and nodded, accepting the controller the blonde held out to him. "Yeah…" It didn't make him like the situation any better, but at least he had a good friend and a subtle distraction from the scarier things in the world.

* * *

><p>A flash of soaked and matted raven-colored hair caught on the low-hanging branch of a tree. Mokuba Kaiba wrestled to yank his hair out of the tree's death grip, succeeding only after snagging and tearing the sleeve of his green shirt for the hundredth time. He fell back, sliding down the muddy slick of earth to a makeshift dirt path. The damp soil clung to his shirt, jeans, and sneakers even after he stood up and shakily ran over to another nearby tree, frantically glancing around to make sure no one was tailing him or had seen him.<p>

He knew that his brother was being held somewhere deep in the forest, as he had discovered that Illuminate Incorporated (the latest company to attempt a takeover) had a lab located someone in the vicinity. But he'd been scouring the entire placed for the whole two weeks his brother had been missing to no avail, and Mokuba was tired, hungry, and nearly hopeless at this point. He hadn't eaten in days, and the only rest he'd gotten happened when he would involuntarily pass out for short increments of time. He'd even started second-guessing his work, despite his gut telling him that he was in the right place and after the right people.

He shivered as the rain started pouring even harder, and he knew what he had to do. He knew his brother wasn't dead-these people needed him for something-but he wasn't sure how much time he had. There had been so much blood around the mansion and the KC headquarters…

Mokuba shook his head vigorously to rid himself of that thought. He couldn't keep doing this by himself anymore…after they arrived home from Egypt, Kaiba had made him promise not to ask Yugi Muto for help ever again. But Mokuba was stuck, and he didn't know what to do next…the only logical thing _to_ do was ask for help. And if it saved his brother's life, then it would be worth the angry lecture.

He looked up at the murky, ominous sky. It had been dark for a long time now, so Mokuba knew it had to be really late at that point. But Yugi wouldn't be mad at him for coming by…

And Mokuba ran as fast as he could, slipping and tumbling over roots, rocks, and mud various times before he reached the clearing.

* * *

><p>Back at Yugi's place, the two friends had fallen asleep a few hours earlier. Yugi was curled up on the couch, sleeping peacefully under a yellow fleece throw blanket, while Joey was sprawled out on the floor. Yugi had thrown a quilt over him after realizing his friend had passed out, but the blonde thrashed around so much in his rest that the blanket was barely even covering his legs.<p>

Three uneven knocks sounded at the door; they were quiet, but Yugi was a light sleeper and awoke immediately. He blinked tiredly into the dark room, wondering if he'd heard right. One more soft thud on the door confirmed his thoughts, and he shuffled sleepily over to the door. Peeking through the side window, he gasped when he saw a mud-covered child with wild, unkempt hair and tattered clothing shivering in the downpour. He yanked the door open and motioned for him to come inside.

"Come in, come in," he babbled urgently. "Where are your-"

The child looked up miserably, revealing blank-looking grayish eyes.

"Yugi…" he breathed, falling forward into Yugi's arms. That was when the older boy realized that this child was Mokuba Kaiba.

"Joey!" Yugi called out as he dragged Mokuba to the living room. "Joey, it's _Mokuba_."

The blonde woke up and scrambled to his feet in a hurry, pulling his shirt down back over his exposed abdomen. He helped Yugi lay the kid down on the couch, and pressed the back of his hand over Mokuba's forehead and cheeks.

"He's burning up…must have been running around in the rain for awhile," Joey murmured. "We've got to get him out of these clothes and into something warm and dry."

Mokuba stirred and opened his eyes, then jerked upright and attempted to jump off the couch, but tripped right into Joey's chest.

"My brother…gotta find my brother…" he insisted dazedly, attempting to stand up. But Joey wrapped his arms around him tightly, preventing him from even moving.

"Yugi…"

"I'll go grab him a pair of my pajamas," Yugi said quickly, and he rushed out of the room. Joey looked down at the freezing, sopping bundle of hair and mud in his arms and frowned.

"You need to take a shower, kid," he muttered, lifting Mokuba up and carrying him to the bathroom. The child could barely stand up by himself, so Joey knew that an independent shower was out of the question. He sighed and pulled off Mokuba's dirty, damaged clothes, then started spraying the mud, grass, and dried blood off of his bruised and battered body. Joey frowned as more mud was washed away to reveal even more cuts and bruises. He also noticed that Mokuba's ribs were protruding out a bit…

The blonde shifted the kid in his arm and started shampooing his hair. The shampoo cleansed the muck from his hair, but didn't do much to help the mats and tangles. After cursing Kaiba for being concerned with literally everything except getting Mokuba a proper haircut, he shut off the water and wrapped the child in a towel, then grabbed another nearby towel for his hair. Yugi walked in, holding a pair of yellow pajamas. He looked at the pile of murky clothes on the floor and frowned.

"Here are some clean pajamas," he said quietly. "I think I should just throw out…those…"

Joey nodded. "Yeah…those clothes are goners. By the way, I have no idea what to do with this kid's hair." He stopped drying it and pulled the towel away, revealing a clean albeit unruly mess. "It's hopeless."

"Téa'll know what to do. We can call her later," Yugi chuckled, and he gathered the dirty clothes from the bathroom floor and left. Joey put the pajama bottoms on first, then gingerly put the top on and buttoned it up.

"I know you're not feeling well, Mokuba, but you look like you could use some food. Can you walk yet?"

Mokuba took a few steps, but quickly became exhausted and grabbed Joey's hand. The blonde was surprised, but didn't say anything as he gently situated him on the couch. He wrapped both blankets around the kid and stood up. Yugi returned to the living room with a cup of tea and a plate of toast, and sat down next to Mokuba.

"Here," he said gently, pressing the cup into Mokuba's palms. "I put honey and lemon in there, it should help you start to feel better soon."

Mokuba stared into the tea for a moment before taking a slow sip. After a few moments, he took another drink, which seemed to whet his appetite. Yugi smiled when he noticed Mokuba eyeing the toast, and gladly handed it over. Mokuba instantly devoured the bread with strawberry jam, and Joey laughed.

"I'll go make some more," he said, ruffling Mokuba's hair. Yugi watched as the child returned to sucking down the tea, and affectionately tucked the blankets more snugly around him.

"Mokuba…where have you been? What's going on?" he asked gently. Mokuba gazed up at him, tears gathering in his already shining eyes.

"A couple months ago, a company tried to take over Kaiba Corp again. They're called Illuminate Incorporated…they're a newer gaming company, but they've got a lot of money and power already. But Seto's still smarter, so he stopped them before they could really start…" Mokuba sniffled and brushed his tears away. "But these people play dirty. One night, they broke into the mansion. I was already sleeping, but I woke up when I heard a gunshot…and then my brother was yelling at someone. Seto always told me that if anything like this ever happened, that I was supposed to hide and stay out of it…and I did. But the next thing I knew, I saw them dragging my brother out of the mansion. They killed most of our bodyguards, too."

"Then what happened?"

"Well…I followed them out to our HQ, and they forced Seto get them in. I lojacked the car while they were in the building. I don't what they wanted, but about an hour later, they were leaving…Seto was bleeding…there was so much blood…I don't know what happened to my brother," Mokuba said, his voice breaking as the tears began to flow freely, "but he was alive when they left the building. I mean, he was pretty dazed, but he was alive and walking and _breathing_. Then they threw him into the car, and I managed to follow them after tracking their vehicle."

Mokuba was sobbing at this point, but he seemed to be intensely committed to finishing the story, despite the fact that his voice was very much giving out at that point.

"They went to that forest at the edge of town, and were there for a few days…I did some research and found out they have a lab somewhere out there, but then the tracker stopped working. I haven't been able to find the lab yet, and I've been running around that forest for two whole weeks."

Joey returned to the room and placed some more toast in front of the bawling Mokuba. He shot Yugi a confused look, to which the shorter boy responded with an expression that said, '_I'll tell you later_.'

"Here, shhh…it's all right, Mokuba," Yugi said soothingly. "We'll find your brother, just like we always have. But if you're going to be able to help, we need you to get better fast. Eat some more toast; do you want me to get you some more tea?"

A few minutes passed before Mokuba was calmed enough to shake his head. "No, thanks," he told Yugi, but seemed to contently eat the rest of the toast. The other two watched with solemn expressions, until he was finished. Joey asked if he wanted more, but Mokuba shook his head. They all sat in silence for a few more minutes.

"Well…you need to sleep, Mokuba," Yugi said firmly, which immediately caused the little Kaiba to protest.

"No! Seto needs me! He's in bad shape, we've got to get to him before-"

"Stop," Joey cut in. "We're absolutely on this, but you need to take time to rest before you come with us. I'll call Tristan and Duke right, and we'll go out to the forest and look around. Yugi will stay here with you, and Téa will come by later to fix that mess we call your hair."

Mokuba wasn't entirely convinced, but his body was starting to feel heavier and heavier…he sighed and leaned back into the pillows.

"Do you have any juice?"

Yugi perked up at the question. "Yeah! We've got apple, orange, or strawberry kiwi, which do you want?"

"Apple, please," Mokuba said weakly, and Yugi nodded. He went to the kitchen, followed by Joey.

Yugi pulled out a glass from the cabinet, and retrieved the canister of apple juice from the fridge. He filled the glass before turning to face Joey.

"Tristan's going to kill you for waking him up this early on a Saturday, especially for Kaiba."

Joey shrugged. "It's for the kid. He'll get it, eventually." He picked up his truck keys from the counter and walked down to the door. "Later."

Yugi waved at his back before heading back to the living room, where Mokuba was trembling in a little bundle on the left side of the sofa. He brought the juice over to the kid, who relaxed a bit at both Yugi's return and the sweet liquid. After he finished the glass, he gazed up at Yugi.

"I need my big brother, Yugi…if something happens-"

"We'll find him, and bring him home to you, Mokuba," Yugi assured him. "And then we'll stop whoever is trying to hurt you guys. Trust me."

Mokuba snuggled up in the corner of the couch. He closed his eyes; tears leaked out, which he felt Yugi gently brush away. The child struggled half-heartedly against the sleep attempting to take him, and he let out one long, heavy, ragged exhale. He did trust Yugi-after all, the spiky-haired boy always kept his promises-but they'd never been in this deep before. The sight of his brother's blood carpeting floors and pavements alike was etched into his mind like a tattoo, and it made him even sicker.

"Please help me find him. I'm not ready for this..."


	2. Chapter 2

Gone Into Dust

"There's no way Kaiba's been letting his little brother run around here all alone for the past week," Tristan grumbled as he, Duke, and Joey stalked through the muddy forest. The green fabric of his jacket snagged on branches every few steps, until he lost his footing on an unseen tree root protruding from the earth. A second later, he was flat-facing it in a pile of soggy dirty and leaves. Joey cracked up as his friend spluttered expletives on the ground before him, but quickly became serious as Duke pulled Tristan to his feet.

"Naw, man, trust me, something bad is going on. Mokuba showed up at Yugi's last night looking like he'd just gotten to the city after being a forest hobo his whole life."

"Oh…hey, speaking of Yugi, how'd the new game go? Did Yugi beat your ass, or did he beat your ass at it?"

"He totally beat my ass. But I ate more pizza, so…it's a tie."

Duke rolled his eyes, glanced around the endless rows of trees, and groaned. "Kaiba could be anywhere," he complained, waving his arms around. "I mean, couldn't Mokuba have at least come along to tell us where he's already searched?"

Joey shook his head. "He's sick from the rain and cold. That's why Yugi stayed back with him. The kid's pretty out of it. But if he gets some downtime, he should bounce back fast."

The three continued walking along in silence for what could have been hours, until they reached a clearing on the far southeast side, which opened into a long gravel path that clearly lead to a large wrought-iron gate steeled into a stone wall-like fence. Joey frowned and drew in a deep breath.

"You guys ready?"

"As ready as I'll ever be…" Tristan said, with Duke murmuring in agreement. They picked up the pace and sprinted on down to the gate, then froze right in front of it, wondering what to do next.

"Is there a callbox or something…?" Tristan asked, craning his neck to peer at the peeling black paint. "Because I'm not sure what other option we have."

Joey growled and shrugged off his denim jacket. "We scale the damn thing, dumbass. We don't have time to look for a buzzer-besides, what would we say? '_Oh, hello, we're just here to break out your hostage, whether he's dead or alive. We're really not picky, so would you mind opening the gate?_' Please." He cracked his shoulders and rolled his neck before taking a deep breath and charging straight for the gate; as soon as he'd leaped off the ground and made contact with the top of the gate, a terrible sizzling sound hissed out, and Joey's body shuddered and twitched violently as he fell backwards right onto the ground.

"Joey!" Tristan screamed as he flung himself down to the blonde's side. His friend's warm amber eyes were frozen open in shock. Duke was petrified for a split moment before he did the only thing he could think of: he balled his fist up and slammed it hard several times across Joey's chest. The blonde immediately snorted, gasped, and choked, and tried sitting up. Tristan let out a sound of relief as he forced Joey's shoulders back down.

"You _idiot_," he shouted. "You almost got yourself killed!"

Joey didn't respond for a few moments as he laid on his back, staring up into the hazy afternoon sky. Then, ever so slowly, he started to rise into a sitting position, guided after a moment and held up by Tristan. All of them surveyed the area in silence for a moment before Tristan spoke.

"D'you think they know we're out here?"

"If they did, I think they'd have sent someone out by now."

"Not unless they think you're dead, Joey. From what the news has been reporting about Kaiba's case, these people seem like they'd enjoy that sort of thing."

"Except you're not dead, thanks to me," Duke cut in, earning glares from the other two. "Just saying."

Joey let out a long breath and shook his head. "We have to get in there…if Kaiba's alive, he won't be for long…"

"But if he's already dead, then so are we."

In the direction of the forest, a faint roaring sound could be heard. Duke dived behind a pile of nearby boulders, and Tristan followed just as soon as he'd heaved Joey over his shoulder.

"I can walk, you stupid-"

"Shut up for once, Joey, someone's coming!"

Sure enough, a simple black sedan was cruising down the gravel path, leaving a murky cloud of dust in its wake. The three of them peered around the rocks as the car pulled up to the gate. A willowy blonde girl wearing a skimpy black leather skirt and hot pink tube top jumped out of the passenger's side and bounced over to a small box disguised as a brick to the far left of the gate. She flipped it open, and Duke could clearly see her enter '4281' on a keypad. The gate pinged and slowly opened, and she hopped back into the car, which slowly rolled through the gate.

"Too bad she's probably the scum of the earth, because…_damn_…" Tristan commented with a low whistle, and Duke nodded in agreement. Joey pulled himself to his feet, clinging to a rock for support.

"Come on, we've got to go in after those people," he hissed, glaring down at them. Tristan frowned and stood up.

"Are you sure you're okay? Because-"

"Doesn't matter," Joey snapped, whirling around and dashing through the slowly closing gate. Tristan growled and chased after him, sliding through just in time. Duke had been running behind Tristan, and just barely missed getting fried by the electric gate.

"No matter, I know the code!" he called to them, but Joey told him to stop. He walked over and threw his truck keys through the bars of the gate.

"Go back and tell Yugi that we've found some building." Before Duke could respond, he took off running, leaving Tristan gaping between his friends for a moment. The black haired man shook his head and stepped back.

"Keep an eye on him, Tristan. Or he's going to get himself killed."

* * *

><p>Yugi was sitting at the table in the kitchen, sipping a mug of hot chocolate and gazing out at the cars slowly chugging around the streets. He'd been keeping an ear out for Mokuba, who had not been sleeping well at all. The child had been waking up, screaming and crying every fifteen to twenty minutes for the first few hours, but had finally managed to sleep straight through one full hour. Still, Yugi didn't entirely trust the nightmares to be over yet. He sighed and wandered to the living room, and leaning back against the wooden frame of the arch leading to the kitchen, he observed Mokuba.<p>

Thankfully, the kid continued to sleep, lying on his back with his arms splayed out around his head. His breathing was soft and steady, but Yugi hesitated to call it peaceful. He watched as the child coughed, sniffled, and shifted a little, then let out a long exhale, punctuated by a very faint wheeze. That was a good sign; he'd been so stuffed up earlier that he couldn't even breathe without snoring like a sixty-year-old man. The slight wheeze in his breath was definitely an improvement. Yugi turned around and headed down to the game shop, where his grandfather was doing inventory between customers.

"How's business going?" Yugi asked tiredly, pulling a stool up to the glass display his grandpa was just locking up. The elderly man looked over at Yugi with an expression of concern, stuffing the keys back in his pockets.

"It's going well, Yugi. How are things upstairs? You look like you could use a break."

Yugi smiled and propped his chin up in his hand. "Yeah, I'm a little exhausted. Mokuba had some bad dreams, but I think he's finally gotten to a place where he can just sleep off whatever got into his system from running around in the rain we've been having." He opened a nearby bag of chips and crunched on some for a minute. "He's really worried about his brother, and I'm starting to think that maybe…he's not in the wrong."

Solomon gave Yugi an almost unnervingly amused look, as though he couldn't believe his grandson had just caught on. "Of course he's not, with everything that's been happening! I understand you want him to feel calm and together, but this time is different, Yugi. The amount of blood Kaiba lost is significant…we can always hope for miracles-you know that-but you also have to be prepared if that doesn't work. And if not for you, then for Mokuba."

Yugi sighed. "I know. I just…I can't let Mokuba lose his only family. Yeah, Kaiba's a jerk most of the time, but he definitely doesn't deserve this."

They were silent for a few moments, until Duke walked into the store, his face even paler than usual and his hair strangely messed up.

"Guys, I've got a bad feeling about all of this," he blurted out, slumping back against the wall.

Yugi frowned. "Join the club. What happened? Where are Joey and Tristan?"

"Well…we might have found the building Kaiba's in, but it's…really dangerous." When Yugi just looked at him quizzically, Duke sighed and explained, "Joey almost got shocked to death trying to scale an electric fence. I mean, I'm sure you didn't expect it to be easy, but…"

"Is he okay? What does the building look like?" Yugi asked, jumping off the stool.

Duke hesitated and shrugged a bit. "Last I saw, he was all right. The building is at the far back of the forest; there's a giant clearing and a big path going down to a freaky-looking building."

Yugi's large violet eyes widened even more. "Wait…is it surrounded by a stone fence, with a broken sign surrounded by a pile of rocks?" Duke nodded, and the shorter boy ran over to him. "That's where I had my interview last week for the new tournament kick-off. But Mokuba said the people who captured Kaiba were from Illuminate Incorporated…the woman I talked to was an official for the press."

"We should go, so you can say for sure. From what I saw, we've got to find Kaiba as soon as possible."

Yugi inclined his head in agreement, and turned to his grandpa. "Take care of Mokuba. Tell him I'm following a lead, but don't let him go anywhere…it's not safe."

Solomon chuckled. "I'll just give him some medicine when he wakes up. He won't be going anywhere. But…Yugi," he said, suddenly serious. "Be careful." Yugi smiled at his grandfather and shook his head.

"Don't worry about me, Grandpa. I can take care of this."


	3. Chapter 3

Gone Into Dust

If Joey and Tristan hadn't watched the black car with two passengers drive through earlier, they would have sworn the place was empty. Strangely, doors seemed to be unlocked everywhere, and the rooms behind those doors were either offices that appeared innocent enough, or completely empty. Finally, Tristan slumped against a wall, and groaned.

"There's nothing here…"

Joey flung another door open, glanced around, then slammed it shut, growling. "Someone's got to be here somewhere, Tristan…you saw as well as I did that a car drove through that fucking Death Gate…"

"Well, that Death Gate fried your brain, maybe you were seeing things."

"Oh, so you're hallucinating, too?"

"No!"

"Good," Joey said dismissively. "So shut up, get your ass off the floor, and help me find a lead."

Tristan sighed, but obliged his old friend. They continued to search the floor, until Joey found a locked door in the far back. He threw his body against it, testing the sturdiness. The door rattled loosely, signaling that it wasn't sturdy at all.

"Hey…come over here," he called over to the brunet, who had just slammed a different door shut, jarring the whole east wall. "This one's actually locked…"

Tristan ran over and jiggled the doorknob a bit, frowning. "It shouldn't take much to open this…"

"Who are you?"

Both males froze at the deep, slow voice, before turning around to find a rather large, bulky man standing behind them. His arms were crossed over his massive chest, but he was peering down at Joey and Tristan with a more curious expression than anger.

"You the thugs Marcus hired?"

"Uh…yeah," Joey immediately improvised, earning a frantic look from Tristan. "Yeah, we're the ones he hired. You know, for the…hostage…"

The large man raised an eyebrow. "You hardly seem like the types that could torture that snarky ass demon they've got locked out there-"

"Hey, what do you mean by that, Meathead?" Joey demanded. "I'll have you know I've tortured plenty of idiots on the streets…hell, ever hear of the name _Hirutani_?"

The man spluttered for a second before growling. "He said he'd never lend out his men again after-"

"Yeah, well, let's just say I'm freelance now, buddy," Joey snapped, exuding way more confidence than he was actually feeling. "Now why don't you show us to our job and we'll take it from there?"

The man stared down at him for a moment before sneering and stepping back. "Just give a moment." The other two watched as he lumbered away and Tristan immediately yanked on Joey's collar.

"What the hell are you doing, man, you're going to get us _murdered_…"

Joey shoved him away and slammed his arms across his chest. "You don't know that. Besides, if Kaiba's the hostage they're holding here, it sounds like he's still alive. And if he's not, we break out whoever is and start a new search."

"So do we break out Kaiba if it's him?"

"I haven't decided that yet," Joey muttered, as the man was returned, a large ring of keys in his hand. Once he was standing directly in front of them, he handed the keys to Joey.

"Your story's confirmed. That gold key will get you through that door. You'll find your way after that…oh, and one more thing…"

"…W-what?"

"My boss said more boys are on the way to help you," the man said with a smirk. "We need the information by tonight, so go hard or go home…and the latter isn't a choice."

They watched him walk away, and Tristan grabbed Joey by the shirt once again. "Doesn't this seem way too easy?"

Joey wrenched himself out of his grasp and shoved him aside, then unlocked the door. "Yeah…which probably means that someone from the old gang is actually on their way…so we've got to work fast."

They followed a short hall that led to a secluded door halfway down on the right. Joey drew in a deep breath, told Tristan to shoot a text off to Duke to meet them in the back, and finally unlocked the door, revealing an unconscious Seto Kaiba slumped against the wall. His hands were roughly tied behind his back, and his ankles were bound as well. He was shirtless, and Joey nearly gagged when he saw all sorts of gashes and abrasions littering his chest, arms, and back, most of which had been poorly cauterized in order to stop the bleeding and probably to add excess torture. He ran over and fell to his knees at Kaiba's side, first untying his legs and then unbinding his wrists. The impressions left on his wrists and ankles were so deep and so bluish-purple that Joey couldn't help but to flinch. Kaiba's skin felt hot and clammy-most likely from a lack of sufficient food or water-but that was the only sign that he was alive. Joey quickly shoved Kaiba against the wall again, and placed his ear to his chest, attempting to find a heartbeat while avoiding the blood and burns marring the skin. After managing to locate a faint thumping sound, Joey managed to drag him out the door and out the back, where Tristan was glancing around nervously, until he blanched upon seeing Kaiba.

"What the-Joey, is he even _alive_?!"

"Barely," the blonde grunted, motioning for Tristan to grab Kaiba's other side. "Help me drag him over to the tree over there, we can hide until Duke gets here."

"That's exactly where he's going to meet us, actually. He's on his way back right now, and Yugi's coming with him."

They managed to get Kaiba over to the tree without being noticed, then ducked down themselves.

"Good," Joey murmured, frowning down at Kaiba. "They just need to hurry up."

A few moments later, the truck came to a screeching halt in front of them. Duke jumped out, and the three of them managed to stick Kaiba in the very narrow backseat with Yugi, who nearly passed out at the sight of his greatest rival. Joey and Tristan scurried around to sardine up in the front with Duke just as the same large man gunned out from the opposite side, with a handful of other men following behind him.

"Stop them!" the man thundered, and his men started chasing after the truck, which had just started blasting forward. Suddenly, gunshots started blaring from all around them, and a couple bullets suddenly blasted through the window, causing the glass to shatter and cascade down. Joey yelped out, and Tristan cursed loudly.

"Joey-your arm-"

"_I know about my own arm_!" he bellowed, and Tristan pressed his hand on his friend's bleeding upper arm, glancing through the back window frantically.

"I think we lost them…"

"Don't get your hopes up until we get out of these damn trees…" Duke warned, and they all remained silent until the surroundings changed from trees to buildings, and there were no gunmen chasing and shooting after them. Joey groaned, clutching his arm, and Tristan frowned, and tightened his grip.

"We should get to the hospital now…"

"No," Joey responded quickly, cringing at the suddenness of his words. "We have to get Kaiba to Yugi's house. I don't think anyone should know he's back yet…I mean, we can ask Mokuba if they have a doctor or whatever, but we should just keep him under wraps for now."

"They didn't see me," Yugi interjected. "We can definitely use my place as a safe house, but Joey…you should get that checked out."

Joey finally agreed after some more arguing, and Duke finally managed to park the truck right near the back door of the game shop. Yugi rushed over to unlock the door while the others (minus Joey) managed to pull the unconscious brunet out of the truck and into the house.

"Bring him up to my room…I'm going to go check on Mokuba and talk to my grandpa," Yugi told them, to which they nodded and did so as Yugi rushed down to the shop, where the old man was just bidding a good day to a couple of customers. He turned to his grandson, who was approaching the counter.

"Yugi…are you all right? What happened?"

"We found Kaiba," Yugi said quietly, looking over his shoulder to make sure the place was empty. "He's alive, but he's hurt pretty badly. How's Mokuba?"

"Sleeping…he woke up a little while ago and I gave him some lunch, and some medicine. He should be good as new in no time."

"Good," Yugi breathed out, and walked over to the stairs. "I'm going to go deal with Kaiba, so Joey can get to the hospital."

Before his grandfather could ask, Yugi ran up the stairs, taking only a brief moment to check on Mokuba before heading up to his room, where Tristan and Duke had placed Kaiba on the bed. Joey was wincing and clutching his arm, causing Yugi to quickly usher them out.

"Get him checked out," he urged. "I'll work on trying to figure out what Kaiba's been through…hopefully he'll wake up soon." They hesitated until Yugi pushed them out the door. Once they were gone, he went to his bathroom to retrieve some first aid supplies, placed them on his nightstand, then ran downstairs to grab a bottle of water from the fridge for when Kaiba came to. Upon returning to his room, he wet a washcloth with some rubbing alcohol and began to gingerly siphon the blood off of Kaiba's chest, avoiding the minefield of burns and cuts. It was a horrifying sight, and Yugi wanted to make it look a little less horrible before Mokuba woke up and wanted to see his brother.

Unfortunately, the injuries didn't look much better after the removal of his blood-much to Yugi's dismay. He sighed, dropped the washcloth, and rubbed his eyes before standing to leave the room; however, a groan sounded from behind him, and Yugi turned around to find Kaiba starting to wake up.

* * *

><p><strong>Notes<strong>: The next chapter is about halfway done as well, so that should be up soon. Also, if you're an anonymous reviewer with a question, please use the link to my Tumblr account in my profile...I'd love to clarify things for you, but doing so before or after chapters just makes things too cluttered for me.


	4. Chapter 4

Gone Into Dust

Every last molecule of his body hurt.

Kaiba never liked to admit when he was ill or in pain; this was an endless irritation to Mokuba, who usually ended up dealing with the brunt of the issues. But this was different: the pain was bordering on excruciating, and he had no idea where he was. His head felt like it was full of wet cement, which was being churned violently against his temples. He cracked his eyes open a bit, and the exceedingly bright light from a nearby window only served to cause his headache to start searing his brains.

A groan escaped Kaiba's dry throat, and he coughed a bit as he turned his head away from the light, squeezing his eyes shut tight again. He heard a sharp breath draw in quickly from somewhere near him, causing his body to inadvertently tense up in anticipation of more pain, until…

"Sorry," a soft voice said apologetically. "I'll pull the curtains." The light was dimmed dramatically. "Kaiba, you should really get some water in you…I brought a bottle from the fridge."

The voice was both comfortingly familiar and a familiar annoyance to Kaiba, who finally allowed his body to relax as he turned his head towards the direction of the voice. He opened his eyes slowly just to be greeted by nothingness. He growled and forced himself into sitting position before letting out a short yelp of pain as he bumped his injuries. Yugi immediately moved to help, but he didn't know how-even touching Kaiba seemed like it could be more than hazardous in his state. He straightened a bit and reached for the water, moving it closer to Kaiba, who had trouble locating it, but finally took it and managed to drink a substantial amount before setting it down and shuddering.

"My brother…where's Mokuba?"

Yugi noticed that Kaiba seemed off, but smiled, happy to finally be able to deliver good news. "He's perfectly fine; in fact, he's sleeping on the couch right now. He caught a little cold after running around trying to find you for the past couple weeks."

"When did he get here?"

"Very early this morning," Yugi told him. "I'll go grab him for you."

Kaiba leaned back as Yugi left the room, still half-unaware of where he was, or what was going on. His vision was less than useful; some objects appeared blurry while others just seemed to be blocked out by black spots. He ran his hands over the material beneath him, and the soft quilt covering him. He was obviously on a bed; one far less comfortable than his own, but it did beat that dank, secluded cell he'd been trapped in for what seemed like forever. At least it was quiet enough in this room.

"Seto?"

"Mokuba…" Kaiba held his hand out. "I can't-I can't really see…" He felt Mokuba grip his hand tightly in both of his small hands. "They blinded me, though I can see more than I did yesterday…I don't think it's permanent."

"I hope all of this isn't permanent. You look really bad," Mokuba whispered, and Kaiba felt him run a hand through his hair. "So…can you see me?"

Kaiba shook his head. "No. I can only see light right now…except it makes my head explode."

"I guess that's why the curtains are shut then," Mokuba murmured. "I'd hug you, but-"

"Come here," Kaiba interjected, holding his arms out. Mokuba hesitated, but gingerly leaned in for a hug. This only lasted for a second, until they made contact and Mokuba felt his brother shudder with an ill-suppressed hiss of pain, after which Mokuba recoiled as though he'd been electrocuted.

"I'm sorry…"

"No," Kaiba said firmly, lying back down. "It's not your fault…" He felt Mokuba pick up his hand again, and squeezed back before continuing. "But tell me, how exactly did Yugi get involved again?" Mokuba tried to withdraw his hand, but Kaiba kept it clamped firmly in his own.

"Mokuba."

"I had to ask him for help."

"We talked about this. Right after that insanity in Egypt. You weren't supposed to ask Yugi Muto for help anymore. Find someone else, if you absolutely need to."

"Who else do we have, Seto?" Mokuba cried. "I was running around in that forest for over a week looking for you, until I couldn't anymore. I was so tired and scared and worried, and then I started getting sick and-"

"Okay, okay," Kaiba murmured dismissively, letting go of Mokuba's hand to pull the quilt around himself. Mokuba waited a moment, and then crawled over to lie beside his brother, taking care to avoid disturbing his wounds. Kaiba rested his hand on Mokuba's forehead, right under his bangs.

"You're feeling a little warm. You should sleep."

Mokuba nodded and sat up again, sighing as he stood up. "I should go back to the couch, though. I don't want to move and hurt you anymore…" He leaned over and pressed his forehead against his big brother's. "But the second you start getting better, I'm going to hug you." He pulled away, and grinned at the slight smile that graced his brother's face, then pulled the bottle of water from the nightstand and pressed it into Kaiba's palms. "Here, drink some more before I leave."

"Yugi told you to do this."

Mokuba snorted. "Like I wouldn't have done so if he hadn't?"

Kaiba obliged his little brother, and finished off the water before Mokuba left. After that, he laid back, opening and closing his eyes, trying to see more than faint hints of light, but to no avail. He huffed and let his eyes close for a moment, until a knock sounded at the door.

"Kaiba?"

"Yugi."

The door clicked closed and Yugi walked in. He placed another bottle of water on the nightstand and sat down on the edge of the bed to study Kaiba for a moment, whose face appeared completely blank of emotion.

"What do you want for lunch? You need to eat something, we'll get you anything you want."

Kaiba was certainly hungry, but he'd gotten used to it awhile ago. Plus, the pain in the rest of his body was far more excruciating than the pangs in his stomach. "It doesn't matter…see what Mokuba wants." He shifted, cringing at the pain shooting across his chest.

"Do you have a doctor I can call? I mean, we have some over-the-counter pain medications, but they might not be enough-"

"Don't call _anyone_."

Yugi nodded, but quickly remembered that Kaiba couldn't see him. "I understand…" He sat quietly for a moment, thinking. "What are you going to do next? I mean, after you get better."

"Get my company back." Kaiba paused, then sighed. "Mokuba doesn't know, but they've been working on taking over. It's good they didn't capture him; otherwise, they would have been able to do so already. But with just me and without him, they didn't get what they needed."

"You think Mokuba would have told them?"

"Of course not," Kaiba snapped. "But I'd never let anyone hurt Mokuba, especially…like this."

Yugi could tell that he was starting to get more comfortable now, with the faint return of the flippant attitude. "All right. I'll go get you something to eat, and something for the pain." He stood up and started to head out of the room.

"Yugi."

He stopped and looked back. "Yeah?"

"How did you get me out of there?"

Yugi chuckled. "Well, obviously, I didn't do it alone. No, Joey was the one to find you. He and Tristan pretended to be the people hired to…um…get some information out of you. They broke you out instead."

"They could have been killed." Kaiba's voice was very matter-of-fact, but Yugi knew he must have felt at least a little gratitude.

"I know." Yugi hesitated for a moment. "Joey actually got shot in the arm, they're at the hospital right now getting it taken care of."

Kaiba didn't respond, so Yugi slipped out the door and headed down to the living room, where Mokuba was lounging on the couch, munching down on crackers like they were on a conveyor belt. He offered a smile over at Yugi, who looked stressed and conflicted.

"Yugi? Are you okay?"

Yugi blinked and forced a smile in return. "Yeah. I'm fine. I just have to get your brother some food…what does he like?"

Mokuba jumped to his feet and rushed into the kitchen after Yugi. "We should order pizza."

"Pizza?"

"Yeah," the child said, nodding. "I like pizza, and Seto doesn't _not_ like it…"

Yugi laughed and pulled out a few menus. "Here, order whatever you want. But remember to use my name for the order, though. Just in case…"

Mokuba nodded, and Yugi watched as he intently scanned each and every menu. After a few minutes, the phone rang, and he leapt up to answer it.

"Hello?"

"Hey, Yugi. It's Tristan."

"Tristan! How's Joey doing?"

There was a long sigh. "He's fine. They got the bullet out and took care of the wound. He's got his arm in a sling-which he's been bitching about constantly-_ow_!" Yugi chuckled when he heard Joey's voice ranting in the background. "Anyhow, we just picked up his prescription, so we're on our way back right now. Or we will be, just as soon as we drop off Duke."

"All right," Yugi said, slightly relieved. "Come in through the game shop, though. Not the back."

They hung up, and Yugi turned back to Mokuba, who was watching him curiously.

"What happened to Joey?"

Yugi was confused for a moment before remembering that Mokuba had been asleep when they'd returned (and left again). He sat down at the table across from the kid and rubbed his eyes.

"When we were escaping, there were a bunch of guys chasing and shooting at us. Joey got hit in the arm, but he's fine. They're on their way back right now."

Mokuba looked away sadly, staring at the menus in front of him. He felt guilty; Yugi and his friends were always willing to risk their lives to help save anyone-but never like _this_. Sure, his brother was the one lying in bed injured, blind, and malnourished, but Joey had taken a bullet for something that had nothing to do with him…

"Yugi, thank you so much for everything. I'm going to figure out somewhere else for us to go-"

"You and your brother are welcome to be here as long as you need to, Mokuba," Yugi interrupted the child, watching him seriously. "In fact, while you order food, I'll go set up the futon for you in my room so you can be close to your brother. It's actually even more comfortable than the couch." He stood up and smiled at Mokuba reassuringly, then went back upstairs, where Kaiba appeared to have dozed off. Yugi tried to keep as quiet as possible as he pulled the futon out into a bed, then went to the closet and grabbed some extra blankets, pillows, and pillowcases, and threw them onto the futon. He checked the bottle of water left for Kaiba, and was happy to see that he'd drunk nearly half of it already. Yugi carefully touched Kaiba's hands and face, and was happy to find that they didn't feel nearly as hot and clammy as they had in the truck. He grabbed his wallet and left the room, curious to hear what Mokuba had decided on for lunch.


	5. Chapter 5

Gone Into Dust

The rest of the day remained quiet. Mokuba got his pizza, but decided that his brother should eat something healthier, and ultimately made him a salad that Yugi had to admit looked pretty good. Kaiba managed to eat the entire thing, and downed it with another bottle of water. Joey and Tristan came back, and hung out with Yugi and Mokuba until Téa arrived. The girl had picked up a new pair of pajamas for Kaiba at the store she worked at, figuring he might be more comfortable in something…well, more comfortable. Mokuba thanked her profusely, and they all agreed it was better for him to tell his big brother that he'd gotten the pajamas. Kaiba had to forgo the shirt, as the material irritated his wounds, but was grateful for the soft, clean pajama bottoms to lounge and sleep in. After Tristan and Joey took off, it was rather late, and Yugi suggested that Mokuba go upstairs to bed.

"The futon's all set up," he assured the child. "If you need more blankets, just come right back, there are plenty down here."

Mokuba nodded and smiled a little. "Thanks, Yugi."

Yugi watched as he ran up the stairs, then curled up on the couch himself and turned on the television. He watched it for a few minutes until Téa reappeared, carrying a box from the shop.

"Hey, I didn't know you were still here."

Téa blew her bangs out of her eyes and grinned. "Yeah, I was on my way out, but your grandpa was just figuring out inventory before he headed out to the airport. So I offered to put this up here."

Yugi sat up, frowning. "Did he already leave?" Usually the man said goodbye before taking off to his little conferences. Téa nodded and set the box down.

"Awhile ago, but he said to tell you not to worry, he knows you're busy helping people, and he's proud of you. He'll be back on Sunday morning." She ran a hand through her hair. "Aren't you tired? It's been insane today."

Yugi smiled. "I know, right? But my mind is running like crazy, so I figured I'd watch some TV before trying to sleep."

Téa nodded and picked up her purse, hoisting it over her shoulder. "Well, I should go, too…I open tomorrow at work. I'll stop by after, if you'd like."

"That'd be great," Yugi told her. "I'm opening the shop tomorrow morning at ten, but you can stop by on your lunch break if you want. Joey was going to bring by some food from the new pasta restaurant."

Téa agreed, hugged him goodbye, and left out into the night. Yugi curled right back up again, slipping deep into thought as he stared unseeingly at the television.

* * *

><p>Mokuba sighed quietly as he rolled onto his stomach, propping his chin up on his arms while peering over at Yugi's glowing alarm clock. Three in the morning; so it was late, but not nearly as late as it felt for some reason. Since he'd been unable to sleep, listening to his brother's steady breathing had garnered his attention instead. And whenever the rhythm would stop, Mokuba would automatically rush to his side, expecting the worst, only to find out that his brother had only awakened, and then the two would talk quietly until Kaiba drifted off again.<p>

He continued to listen to his brother sleep until he heard the breath catch in his throat like a sort of gasp, followed by muffled words Mokuba couldn't quite make out. He jumped off the futon and hurried to the bed, just as his brother let out a loud, angry cry before shooting halfway up in the bed.

"You'll never get what you want-" Kaiba's words fell off as he woke up due to the pain stabbing him in his sides and abdomen. He growled and collapsed onto his back again, grasping the blankets in his fists.

Before Mokuba could speak, Yugi rushed in and flipped on the light, a wild and worried look on his face. He was about to ask what was wrong, but the sight of Kaiba panting and cringing in agony while his brother kneeled helplessly at his side spoke for itself. He walked over and pulled the covers back to check on the injuries, only to find that some of the healing burns had broken open and were bleeding. Yugi grabbed the washcloth from the nightstand and pressed it firmly over the worst of the newly torn burns.

"Hold this in place while I go grab some more towels, all right? He's going to be okay," Yugi told Mokuba soothingly, and left to grab some more towels after the child nodded and placed his hand over the washcloth.

He gazed at his brother, whose eyes were shut tightly as he attempted to regulate his breathing. Mokuba couldn't help it-he started crying. It was too much seeing his tough, unbreakable brother in this much pain. He thought back to when he wondered if Pegasus was too much for Kaiba to handle-that all seemed like a cakewalk compared to what was happening now.

"Mokuba…" Kaiba finally managed to say through clenched teeth. "Don't cry."

"I'm not," Mokuba said, keeping his voice surprisingly steady. Kaiba placed his hand over the one Mokuba had on his side.

"I can feel you shaking. Don't worry about me."

Yugi ran back in, his arms full of towels and other supplies. He dropped them onto the bed, and gently guided Mokuba out of the way before pulling out a bottle of liquid sleep medication with a dosing cup. After dispensing some of the medication, he put the cup in Kaiba's hand.

"Take this," he coaxed, restraining himself from sighing impatiently when Kaiba sniffed it. "It'll help you sleep, and I put in some extra so you won't wake up so easily. You don't need to go through any extra stress or pain." Kaiba hesitated some more, and Yugi rubbed his temples, glad that Kaiba couldn't see him getting frustrated. "Just take it, you know I wouldn't hurt you. You once bet your life on that, remember?"

Kaiba rolled his eyes before throwing the medicine back, if only to shut him up. Yugi took the cup from him and set it aside. Mokuba was glancing between Yugi and his brother, wiping the last of his tears away. They both watched for a few minutes as the elder Kaiba brother seemed to fight against the drowsiness before finally giving in and simply just melting back into sleep, and Mokuba shot Yugi an alarmed look.

"Seto _never_ falls asleep that easily…is he okay?"

"Yeah," Yugi responded quietly, pulling out a bottle of ointment and applying contents directly to one of the burns. He waited for a moment, but Kaiba was clearly in a heavy sleep already, so he pulled out a large square gauze patch and placed it right over the burn. "That's what the medicine does. It'll also keep him in a deeper sleep so I can fix him up without hurting him anymore."

Mokuba nodded and sat back, relaxing a bit. He trusted Yugi almost as much as he trusted his brother, and watched him continue to clean his brother's wounds, stifling a yawn after a few moments. Yugi noticed and frowned.

"Have you slept yet?" Mokuba shook his head. "You should get some rest. If you need something to help, you can take some of the medicine I gave Kaiba."

"I'm too worried about my brother right now. He can't even sleep without hurting himself…"

Yugi paused as he screwed the cap back on the ointment and started taping another piece of gauze down over a burned area. "I heard him yelling from downstairs. I wasn't sure if he tried to roll over, or something else."

"Both. He had a bad dream and then sat up too fast." Mokuba shuddered, thinking back to their childhood. "He's never been a very good sleeper, mostly because of his insomnia. I mean, he used to have some bad dreams, too, which got better, but he's been through a lot all over again. I just don't know what to do to help him; he needs to rest to get better, but when he sleeps, he moves around too much, and-"

"Mokuba," Yugi cut in quietly, "I'll take care of it. I'll watch your brother for the rest of the night, and I'll work something out with Téa and Joey when they stop by for lunch. Try to get some sleep now, so you can take care of your brother later, okay?"

Mokuba nodded sadly, then looked over at the bottle of medicine. "How much of that should I take?"

"Less than half of what I gave your brother," Yugi warned. Mokuba was small, and it would take a lot less to make him sleepy than it did his brother. He watched carefully to make sure the kid didn't pour too much, but he took just enough, then went to snuggle up on the futon again. Yugi turned back to finish working on covering Kaiba's injuries, then sat back and studied him for a moment.

The Kaiba brothers were an interesting pair of siblings; even Joey and Serenity didn't have the sort of bond that they did. They seemed to understand each other to the core. Yugi remembered how short and bitter Kaiba had always been, even around Mokuba, but the child was always right beside him with loyalty, support, and hugs as needed. He never took his brother's icy attitude personally, as though he understood something else deep down inside him. But there was also a particular warmth to those normally cold blue eyes whenever Kaiba looked at Mokuba. They seemed to be able to read each other flawlessly, and knew the other from the inside out.

Kaiba started to shift a little bit, and Yugi quickly pressed a hand on his shoulder to prevent him from jerking around too much. He relaxed again quickly enough; Yugi let out a long breath, knowing that he'd have to convince Joey or Téa to help out with getting Kaiba better. It suddenly dawned on Yugi that someone would have to stay with him at all times for this to happen; he was in too bad of shape to have otherwise, as much as he was sure Kaiba would argue about once he got more up to speed. Hopefully, by that point, he'd be doing better anyhow.

* * *

><p>"So you didn't get any sleep last night? Come on, Yugi, he's not worth <em>that<em> much work," Joey admonished his friend affectionately as he popped a piece of garlic bread in his mouth. Yugi couldn't help but to laugh a little; after all, the blonde was the one with his arm in a sling over the guy.

"That's kind of what I wanted to talk to you guys about…he needs a lot more help than I thought," Yugi said, looking back and forth between Téa and Joey. "Mokuba's helping out during the day, but I was going to ask if you guys could help me take some shifts as well. I understand if you can't-"

"Of course we'll help," Téa cut in, earning a look from Joey that clearly said, _we_? Yugi gave her a sheepish smile and quickly rung up a customer before turning to Joey.

"Look, I know you don't like him…but he's doing a lot worse than I thought at first. And Mokuba needs his brother to get well as soon as possible," Yugi explained. "I wouldn't ask for help if it wasn't serious."

"I know that," Joey told Yugi with a lopsided grin. "And I'd help you out no matter what. So what do you need us to do?"

Yugi's pleading expression changed into one of gratitude. "Well, I thought we could do this in shifts. I mean, obviously I'll stay with him during the night, if you could open the store during the morning, Joey…"

Joey shook his head. "I don't know the first thing about running this place. I'll take the night watch so you can crash." Yugi was about to protest, but the blonde held his hand up. "Hey, don't worry, I can do this. Remember, I'm the one who got Kaiba out of that place. I saw things there, maybe I could get some more information out of him so we can take those people down."

"I know, you're right," Yugi admitted. "Just…try not to fight with him too much."

"How can I help?" asked Téa, butting in before Joey could argue about arguing. "Maybe I could stop by for a few hours after work?"

Yugi nodded. "Yeah, that would be great. Mokuba wants to stay with Kaiba as much as possible, but I think a few hours a day out of the room will be good for him." The other two made noises of agreement, and Téa glanced at her phone for the time.

"Well, my break's almost over. I'd better get going. See you after work?"

"Yeah," Yugi said, waving at her. "Sounds good. Thanks." He watched the girl hurry out and turned to Joey. "So you think you can talk to Kaiba about things tonight?"

"Sure," Joey said, shoveling Téa's leftover pasta into his mouth. "Then hopefully we can start looking for these guys tomorrow."

Yugi nodded in agreement, and turned to greet the customers who just entered the store. At least they had a plan in place, but Yugi couldn't help feeling a bit too overwhelmed. Kaiba was badly injured, Joey had gotten hurt, Mokuba was overly stressed out, and everyone else seemed somehow hesitant to help out; not that Yugi could blame them, with the obvious clues to the danger they were in, but still. For the first time, he wished that he'd lost that duel in Egypt, and that the pharaoh was still around to support and guide him.

Then maybe Yugi would feel less alone in this whole mess.


	6. Chapter 6

Gone Into Dust

"Wheeler, if you don't stop crunching on those chips like you're eating bolts from a hardware store-"

"What are you going to do, Kaiba, bitch at me to death?" Joey shot back cheerfully, popping another garlicky potato chip in his mouth. "You're half-blind, stuck in bed, and if you even try to move, you end up right back where you started yelling in pain. Besides, you're only complaining because your other senses are finally kicking in."

This was true. Over the course of the day, Kaiba could have sworn he heard full conversations down three levels in the game shop and he definitely smelled the pasta Joey had brought for lunch. He was also finding it more and more difficult to lie still, as he started noticing the feel of the sheets and blankets pressing against his skin more and more; this was quite uncomfortable, thanks to the abrasions littering his body.

Joey watched as Kaiba moved around gingerly for the millionth time; he sighed and glanced around, trying to figure out how to help him. Seeing as the brunet couldn't even really move, his best chance was to just distract him. He set the bag of chips down and wiped his hand on his jeans.

"What exactly happened that night a couple weeks ago? Mokuba told us his side of the story, but we don't know yours yet."

"It's none of your business."

Joey let out an indignant squawk and jumped out of his chair to his feet. "How is it none of my business? I risked my life to get you out of that place-hell, I got _shot_ because of you."

"I never asked for your help."

"Kaiba, you stupid son of a bitch, that doesn't even matter," Joey snapped. "Aside from the fact that Mokuba _did_ ask for help, I wasn't going to let you die like that. Look at you, when have you ever been more helpless? Like it or not, you _need_ me right now. You need all of us."

Kaiba had flinched at the word helpless; not because Joey had spat it out like a venom-edge knife, but because he was right about that as well. He grumbled and attempted to shift halfway onto his side, since his back was starting to bother him, but it wasn't going to help when lying completely on his side would irritate a burn on the far left side of his chest. Joey noticed what he was trying to do, and grabbed a pillow off of Mokuba's futon to stuff against his back, propping him up just enough to keep him from rolling onto his back again. The brunet was glad he couldn't see the blonde's face; the smugness would have been too much to handle.

But Joey was just gazing down at him with a look of concern. He sat back down on the chair, shaking his head.

"Told you." The two words-which would have gotten anyone else who at any other time had spoken them to Seto Kaiba completely destroyed-were not actually said in an 'I told you so' fashion. They sat in silence for a few minutes until Kaiba finally spoke.

"They broke into my house, and demanded that I give them a USB drive containing some very crucial information pertaining to Kaiba Corp. Obviously, I refused, and that's when they pulled a gun and shot at my dresser. Then they threatened my brother, so I had no choice but to follow them. When we got to Kaiba Corp, I unlocked the drive and gave it to them." He paused to smirk. "Unfortunately for them, there are two crucial passwords not on that thing. One is only known by me, and the other is only known by my brother."

"So that's why they took you? Because you wouldn't tell them the password?"

Kaiba snorted and closed his eyes. "No, that's why they stabbed and cut me a few times in my own office. Then they forced me to go with them out to their car, and locked me up in some room…" His voice was starting to trail off as he remembered what happened next, and his dull blue eyes opened, somehow fixing on Joey's despite the fact they couldn't see him. "How long was I in there?"

Joey swallowed and glanced away. "Two weeks. You've been…gone for two weeks…" He watched an odd expression cross Kaiba's face, something somewhere between confusion and alarm. "How much do you remember?"

"…Not a lot," Kaiba grumbled. "They kept me unconscious, except for when they decided to try getting the information out of me, and that's when-"

"I know," Joey cut in. It was probably best that Kaiba couldn't remember much; he could only guess what happened next. "Look, we want to take these guys down, too. Do you have any information that could help us get started? And I don't want to hear shit about you being able to do it yourself, because you're clearly not going _anywhere_ anytime soon. It's going to take a long time for you to heal, and hopefully you'll be able to see again soon."

Kaiba reached out until his hand made contact with the sling Joey's arm rested in. The blonde tensed up and pulled away after a moment, causing Kaiba to smirk once again, and he shook his head in slight amusement.

"It's not like you're doing much better, Wheeler."

Joey sighed and studied Kaiba's chest for a moment, noticing that a few particular burns seemed to be brighter red. He reached out and gently brushed a finger across a scarlet ring surrounding one of the burns, causing Kaiba to hiss a bit in pain.

"Sorry," he muttered, then moved the back of his hand to Kaiba's forehead. "Are you feeling sick at all?"

"I'm fine," Kaiba told him, moving his head away from the other's hand.

Joey frowned. "Are you sure? Because it feels like you're running a fever…and I think some of those burns are infected."

The door opened, and Mokuba walked in. The first thing he caught was the worried expression on Joey's face, and his gray eyes immediately grew stormy. He ran over to his brother's side, looking back and forth between the other two frantically.

"Why do you look like that? What's wrong with Seto?"

"Uh…nothing…" Joey mumbled. "Hey, kid, could you get him a glass of water? And send Yugi up here, I've got a question."

"Is it important? Yugi just fell asleep on the couch, and I don't want to bother him-"

"Leave him alone, then. It's nothing," Kaiba interrupted. "Just the water is necessary, Mokuba."

Mokuba nodded. "Okay, Seto."

Joey watched him scurry out and scowled down at Kaiba. "Look, you need to give me _something_ to go on. I'll bother you all night if I have to. I won't even let you sleep."

"How long are you planning on staying here?"

"All night. It's my shift."

"Your _shift_?" Kaiba snapped, sitting up way too quickly for his body to take; however, this time he managed to suppress the winces. "I'm not some ninety-year-old invalid."

Joey rolled his eyes, but didn't dare to move and steady him. He watched for a moment as Kaiba shuddered in pain, allowing him to really feel it for a moment. Maybe that would get it through his thick head. Kaiba finally leaned back slowly, attempting to lie down again without writhing in pain.

"No. You're not. But you need more help than you're willing to admit."

They were silent until Mokuba returned with the water, and Joey allowed the child to help his brother with that. He stood up and stretched, deciding to go find a thermometer and some aspirin while the two had some brother bonding time.

"Thanks," Mokuba whispered with a smile, then turned back to his brother as Joey left. "Is something wrong with your back? You keep moving around funny."

Kaiba scowled and shifted once more. "It just itches."

Mokuba smirked, happy that his brother couldn't see, then pushed back the blankets and placed his hand his brother's back, moving his hand around gingerly until his brother told him where. He gently scratched Kaiba's back after making sure he wasn't going to disturb a healing wound, then continued to rub his brother's back since he knew that there weren't as many abrasions there as on his chest.

"Does that feel all right?"

Kaiba focused on his brother's mini-massage for a moment before nodding. It had been a long time since his little brother had needed to comfort him; in fact, the last time had been a couple months or so after being adopted by Gozaburo. Kaiba had gotten sick due to the serious changes in all of his basic habits: sleeping and eating had become scarce, while his stress had shot off the charts, causing his body to all but shut down. Mokuba had stayed with him the entire time, and Kaiba remembered waking at various points to find his baby brother either stroking his hair or rubbing his back.

"Good…" Mokuba murmured. He let a short amount of time go by before continuing. "Yugi's friends want to go back to find those people again tomorrow."

"They're idiots. They shouldn't go _anywhere_ near them until I'm able to go as well."

"…Seto, I'm starting to worry about that."

"Mokuba, Yugi's friends would risk their lives for dying vermin if they had to; there's nothing you can do about them-"

"_No_," Mokuba interrupted. "I'm not talking about that. I'm talking about how you're doing."

"I'm alive, right?"

"Yes, but you're not well." Mokuba paused to wipe away some tears that had gathered, then resumed rubbing his brother's back. "Your eyesight still hasn't come back, and some of your cuts and burns look like they're starting to get infected. I think we need to find a doctor who doesn't know who you are…"

Kaiba growled and stiffened, causing Mokuba to pull his hand back fast and sigh impatiently.

"Look, I know that's risky, but I don't want to worry about losing you again, Seto. I suffered these past two weeks, too, and I know it wasn't as bad as you, but I never want to feel like that again."

Joey reentered the room, finishing a yawn as his eyes fell on Mokuba, who was scowling at his brother. The blonde frowned and flopped into the chair next to the bed.

"What's wrong?"

"My brother needs a doctor," Mokuba said immediately, before Kaiba could even sneer at Joey's question. "But one who won't try to sell the media a story on Kaiba Corp's elusive half-blind CEO."

"That's enough, Mokuba," Kaiba admonished his little brother. Joey snorted, but otherwise ignored the elder brother's scolding.

"Téa's got an older sister in med school…she lives about thirty minutes away from here, but she's so serious she's probably never even played a game in her life. Also, I think she'd take doctor-patient confidentiality pretty seriously too," he told Mokuba, causing the child to break into a grin.

"Would she really come?"

Joey nodded. "Yeah, I'll have Téa call tomorrow." He shook the bottle of aspirin. "You need something for the pain, Kaiba?"

"No."

Mokuba rolled his eyes and took the bottle of medicine from Joey, dispensed a couple tablets into his hand, then dropped them into his brother's open palm.

"Just take it," he said quietly. Kaiba hesitated for a moment before slamming the pills into his mouth and dry swallowing, earning a shudder from Joey. Mokuba hugged his brother good night and went back to his futon, leaving the other two to remain silent until the child's soft breathing filled the air. Joey reached over and clicked off the light, and leaned back in his chair.

He let even more silence pass before telling Kaiba about the conversation he'd had with Yugi while fetching the aspirin.

"Tristan and I are going back to Illuminate Inc. tomorrow."

Kaiba had just been starting to grow drowsy, but Joey's words shocked him fully back into wakefulness. His eyes narrowed in the dark and he shifted onto his left side, facing away from where the blonde sat, watching him cautiously.

"They won't hesitate to kill you."

"How do you know?"

"Because they have no use for you. Not to mention they know you're the one who broke me out of that place."

"Well, at least you can finally admit that."

Kaiba rolled his eyes and burrowed under the blankets. "I never denied it."

"Okay, Kaiba," Joey said in a concluding tone. He propped his feet up on the bed and leaned back in the chair, then pulled out his phone to play games. "Get some sleep. I'll be right here anything happens."

"Fantastic," Kaiba deadpanned, slowly closing his eyes. Even though the single word was spoken sarcastically, he was genuinely relieved to have someone looking out for him-not that he'd ever admit it-especially after all he been through. He let out a small yawn, then opened his eyes again.

"…If you insist on going back to that place, you should look for a USB drive with the KC logo on it. A blonde girl took it from me that night."

"Skanky looking blonde chick?" Joey chimed in, and Kaiba made a noise of confirmation. "We saw her there. I know who to look for. Don't worry, everything will be fine."

Kaiba didn't respond; he just closed his eyes and listened to the clicks the blonde's phone was making. A sick feeling was spreading in his gut, but desperate times were starting to call for desperate measures. And if those two idiots managed to find the drive he needed, well…there might just be hope for the world yet.


	7. Chapter 7

Gone Into Dust

Yugi didn't manage to get much more than a few hours of sleep that night. Everything had been relaxed and calm for the majority of the previous evening: he played video games with Mokuba, cooked dinner with Téa, then watched a movie with both of them, during which he fell asleep. He slept until Joey had awakened him a short time later and blabbered on about how he was pretty sure that some of Kaiba's wounds were getting infected: red rings, fever, and sensitivity. Yugi asked his friend if it looked serious; Joey told him not really, but they should keep an eye on him.

Well, of course. Yugi was going to do that anyway. Joey also told him that he wanted to go back to the building, which the spiky haired boy did not like. He knew it would happen eventually, but was hoping to wait until Kaiba had recovered more; after all, the brunet would know more about what they were up against. But stopping Joey was never easy, so Yugi had no choice but to just be supportive.

He heaved a sigh and glanced at the clock; it was quarter after seven, so it was still pretty early. After tumbling off the sofa, he stumbled up to his room, rubbing his eyes tiredly. He opened the door slowly, half-expecting to find Joey knocked out in the chair; surprisingly, he found him texting furiously on his phone with a stricken look on his face.

"What's wrong?" Yugi asked quietly, since neither Kaiba brother seemed to be awake yet, and he didn't want to disturb them. Joey glanced up and gave Yugi a small smile.

"I told Mokuba I'd ask Victoria to stop by today," he replied, motioning for Yugi to come closer, and pointed to Kaiba. "See? A couple are getting infected, plus he's got a little bit of a fever."

"Well, the fever's another sign of an infection," Yugi murmured, inspecting Kaiba's chest. He straightened up again and looked at Joey. "Did you get ahold of her yet?"

Joey nodded. "She just texted me back, and said she'll be over around nine."

They sat in silence for a short while before Mokuba suddenly babbled incoherently behind them, causing Yugi to turn around, but Joey just smirked and chuckled.

"He's been talking in his sleep all night. I got a few good videos; in one of them, he was talking about fish fighting against snakes. I don't know where he gets his stuff."

Yugi laughed gently and looked back at Kaiba. "What about him?"

"Dozed in and out through the night," Joey said with a shrug. "Been sleeping like a log for the past hour and a half though." He reached for the bag of chips and started crunching on them. "It's weird, I wouldn't have guessed that Kaiba _sleeps_."

Yugi couldn't help but to smile and roll his eyes. "Most people do, Joey."

The blonde shrugged, and they both watched as Kaiba attempted to roll onto his stomach. Joey reached out and pushed him back onto his side, causing the brunet to grumble and resituate himself, but he remained asleep until Joey's phone started buzzing on the bedside table a few minutes later.

"Oops…" Joey muttered as Kaiba jolted awake, but answered the phone anyhow. "What's up, Tristan?" He jumped to his feet and scurried out of the room, leaving Yugi to take his seat. The spiky-haired boy watched as Kaiba pushed himself weakly to a sitting position; he could clearly confirm that Kaiba's wounds were becoming infected. He pulled a glass of water off the table and pressed it gently again against his palm. Kaiba jumped, apparently unaware that Yugi was in the room.

"Sorry," Yugi apologized. "I was just trying to hand you the water, I should have mentioned I was here."

Kaiba finished off the water and managed to place the glass back on the table. His skittishness was slightly less from Yugi appearing out of nowhere and more because he couldn't see _anything_ now.

"What time is it?" he asked, hoping that it was the middle of the night despite the sinking feeling in his stomach. The fact that Yugi hesitated didn't help that feeling.

"It's almost nine…oh, by the way, Téa's sister will be by any minute to check up on you."

"Where's Mokuba?"

"Right over here. He's not awake yet," Yugi hastened to assure him, unnerved by the sudden agitation in Kaiba's voice and wild look in his eyes.

Joey walked in again, with a petite brunette on his heels. The young woman greeted and smiled genteelly at Yugi and set a leather bag on the foot of the bed. The blonde bit his lip and leaned against the doorframe, stifling a yawn.

"Here's Victoria for the first time in years," he announced, "but here goes Joey. Tristan's out front, we're going back. I'll see you later!"

"Be careful!" Yugi told his friend before watching him bound away, and then turned back to where Téa's elder sister was looking at him with wide, expectant baby doe eyes. "Sorry. This is the one we need checked out, I'll leave you to it." He motioned to Kaiba before leaving, and the girl nodded, sitting down on the bed.

"All right…" she said quietly, and glanced over quickly at the child still sleeping on the futon then back at Kaiba. "I'm Dr. Gardner. What can I help you with?"

"I can't see anything," he said gruffly. "And my chest burns."

Victoria leaned over to examine his skin closely, frowning at the little pustules forming over the bright red splotches. She pulled on a pair of gloves and extracted a large bottle of cooling ointment, then applied it to his injuries with a large ball of cotton. Kaiba twitched at the chilly sensation, but accepted it after a moment, realizing it felt _good_. The young doctor noticed how he melted into the bed after a moment, and she felt hopeful to see he was a little more comfortable.

"Is it just burning on your skin, or do you feel something inside, too?"

"Just…it's just on the outside."

She murmured in understanding, continued applying the gel, and asked him various questions about how it felt when she prodded him here and there. Her heart ached for what he must have gone through. Téa confided in her sister about what had been happening with Kaiba, and Victoria couldn't even imagine living through any of that. Satisfied that his skin looked like it was going to be all right aside from the long healing time, she moved on to his eyes.

"What happened before you lost your sight?" she asked gently, waving her hand slowly across his eyes. He continued to stare blankly, despite the movements in front of his face.

"They sprayed something in my face. I was able to see more light for the first couple days, now today I can't see anything…"

She made a sympathetic noise, knowing there was no way he'd know what was sprayed at him, and checked out his eyes with a light. The pupils didn't respond at all, which wasn't a great sign-obviously-but the rest of his eye didn't show any sign of extended injury, which _was_ good.

"Do your eyes itch or anything?"

"No."

"Okay," she said quietly. "To be honest, I can't tell you much about this without other tests, which I understand isn't possible given your current situation…what I can tell you is that your other injuries will heal fine, even though you might experience some scarring. I'm leaving behind some soothing ointment and some cream for the infected burns." Victoria paused for a moment, during which she felt his forehead, cheeks, and neck. They were all noticeably warm, so she pulled out a thermometer and stuck it in his ear. After removing the thermometer, she could see that it read just over 101 degrees. "Are you feeling ill at all…?"

"Not particularly."

"Any fatigue, pain, or discomfort aside from your injuries?"

Kaiba rolled his eyes. "I'm just tired most of the time. That's all."

"Just make sure you keep drinking plenty of water and get lots of rest," she advised. "You're healing, but you're not unbreakable. Still, you're a tough one, Mr. Kaiba. I'm impressed. Your medication is on the table." Victoria set it down with an accentuating clink. "Let Joey or Téa know if you need anything else. I'm here to help."

"What's your name?"

"Dr. Gardner…" she said, slightly curious, and said curiosity only grew when Kaiba shook his head.

"Your first name."

"Oh, I'm sorry…I'm Victoria," she said, smiling, and even though Kaiba couldn't see that smile, he could hear it in her voice. He vaguely wondered how that could be.

"You'll be compensated for your time," he told her, lying back down carefully.

Victoria shook her head. "You've been through enough, and I'm doing this as a favor to Joey. Don't worry about it." She gathered her supplies and left the room without another word, until she let out a slight squawk when she got to the living room. Tristan had just gotten back, and he, Yugi, and Téa were surrounding Joey; Victoria dropped her bag and rushed to his side, checking for a pulse or _something_. There was a large spot of crimson spread out across his chest, and upon removing his shirt, it was a clear that it was bullet hole.

But that didn't really matter, because Joey wasn't alive anymore.


	8. Chapter 8

Gone Into Dust

**Author's Note: **Wow! So apparently all I need to do to get you people to leave a review is off someone? Pffft, I'd turn this into a bloody massacre if my writing partner wouldn't kill _me_ for it. But seriously, thank you all so much for the reviews. It makes me happy. Also, as you've probably noticed, updates are less-than-regular here because school has started again. I'm still cranking out the one-shots as usual, and working on my own stuff, but it's difficult to co-write with two writers in different universities at different ends of the country. Mostly because, you know…I procrastinate and Bryony doesn't. Haha.

* * *

><p>For a full minute, Yugi's world wasn't even real.<p>

He saw his best friend's lifeless body on the floor, his childhood friend sobbing, his childhood friend's older sister on the phone with an ambulance and frantically searching for the non-existent vitals, and his best friend's childhood friend staring at the blonde, unblinking, with tears streaking his colorless cheeks. Suddenly, everything whirled into reality around Yugi, and he watched frozen in place as paramedics stormed into the house, shocking Joey repeatedly before calling it.

The spiky haired boy watched as they zipped his friend up in the black bag, and suddenly, he couldn't even look anymore, until they hauled the body away. A couple of cops walked in, and glanced around the place quickly. On of them frowned, noting the calm appearance of the surroundings.

"This isn't where he was shot, was it…?"

Tristan shook his head before he spat out, "No. He was shot at Illuminate Incorporated by a fucking _troll_ with some tribal tattoo."

"Illuminate Incorporated? What was happening there?" the other cop, a petite, muscular woman with frizzy brown hair asked.

Tristan scowled, but before he could give out any information about Kaiba, Yugi jumped in.

"Joey and Seto Kaiba were friends," he lied, and it was quite convincing despite that his voice was shaking and the fact that it couldn't have been farther from the truth. "He was mad, and thought they might have something to do with his disappearance. So they went to investigate for themselves."

The male cop scowled and scribbled something on the pad of paper. "Seto Kaiba…? The CEO who went missing a couple weeks ago? Why did he think it had something to do with Illuminate?"

"They're a rival company coming close to catching up," Yugi replied, wiping the tears from his eyes.

"So what exactly happened that got him shot?"

Tristan's fists clenched at his side as he started to shake, but at least he managed to speak. "He called out at the guy, and-and…the bastard flipped and started firing shots at us. I saw Joey fall forward, and I was just barely able to grab him and throw him into my car…I didn't realize he was…_gone_…until I got back here."

"Well, we'll definitely be going to follow up on all this," the lady cop said, shooting a sideways glance at her partner. "And we'll be in touch over here, too."

The cops left (along with Victoria), leaving the others in complete silence aside from the sobs. Tristan suddenly shot to his feet, and stared down at his friends.

"I need to go do some things," he mumbled, before turning to stalk out. Téa leapt up, staring at him.

"Where are you going? Don't do anything stupid-Joey already did, and look at what happened to him."

"I'm not stupid and I'm not him," Tristan snapped back before bailing. Téa fell to her knees, crumpling over into a fresh set of tears. Yugi slipped down beside her and wrapped his arms around her. She leaned into him, and they held each other in tears for a long time, until a small voice piped up from behind them.

"What's wrong?"

Téa lifted her head and wiped her eyes to see Mokuba watching them curiously, and Yugi stood up as well, helping the girl to her feet.

"Mokuba…something happened…" Téa started off shakily. "Joey and Tristan went over to look for the USB drive your brother was talking about, except…they got caught, and-and Joey didn't make it." She started to cry another flood of tears, and Mokuba's mouth dropped open as he slid down on the staircase.

"_No_…"

"Look," Yugi said harshly, earning shocked expressions from both Téa and Mokuba. "This isn't just personal for Kaiba and Mokuba anymore. It's personal for all of us now. If the cops can't get these people, then I swear on all that his holy and _more_ that we sure as hell will."

Téa nodded and went over to sit beside Mokuba, draping her arm around his shoulders.

"We owe it to Kaiba and Joey," she said quietly, and Mokuba nodded slightly.

"We just need to help Kaiba recover some more, and fast," Yugi said. "He probably has tons of resources that aren't hands-on, like what Joey and Tristan were going for, right, Mokuba?"

The kid nodded slowly, still mostly dumbfounded. "I'm sure my brother has something. I just…I wish Joey had never gone back."

"We all do," Téa assured him tearfully. "But that was the thing about Joey…"

Silence fell for a few moments as they let everything sink in. Yugi still had had a pit of rage burning in his stomach, but he knew that it wasn't going to do him any good right now. Mokuba released a shaky breath and stood up slowly, using Téa's shoulder as a support as he rose to his feet.

"I'll go tell Seto…"

Yugi nodded, and watched Mokuba force himself up the stairs. He turned back to Téa, who was staring at him incredulously.

"You're just going to let him tell Kaiba?"

"Why not? Keeping him in the dark isn't going to help any more than telling him what happened," Yugi pointed out. "I'm going to go make some tea and give Serenity a call…do you want anything?"

Téa shook her head slowly. "No…I don't need anything, but thanks." She walked over to the couch and sank into the cushions, momentarily forgetting that Yugi was still watching. He went over to hug her again before pulling away and heading towards the kitchen. Yugi paused in the doorway and glanced back over his shoulder.

"It's difficult right now. But we'll get justice for Joey, Kaiba, and anyone else who's been hurt by these _demons_."

Dazedly, Téa nodded, and curled up into a tight little ball, tears streaming across the bridge of her nose. She wanted time to mourn, time to kick and scream and curse Joey for being so stupid, but she knew there wasn't time for any of that. And it really sucked, because being forced to swallow these more intense feelings wasn't sitting well in her gut.

It wasn't sitting well for any of them.


End file.
